A Chinese state-owned company is aiming to stoke the country's
cultural sector with a tried-and-tested industrial model that has worked
in the past for China's manufacturing industries: Create a tax-free
zone for companies in the arts-and-entertainment world.

Located adjacent to Beijing Capital Airport, the planned Beijing
Freeport of Culture is the brainchild of Beijing Gehua Cultural
Development Group, a conglomerate owned by the Beijing municipal
government. The Freeport, expected to partially open next year, promises
warehouses for art storage, offices for companies involved in
everything from luxury goods to software design, and production
facilities for film and television.

All services and goods exchanged at the Freeport, which is expected to cost Gehua 5 billion yuan (US$802.1 million) to build, will be free of government taxes. ...

But some are skeptical. Ji Tao, a researcher with the Auction
Research Institute of Central University of Finance and Economy in
Beijing, said it is foolish to think creative industries would sprout
the same way low-cost manufacturing did in China's special economic
zone. "This is a new concept made up out of nothing," said Mr. Ji. "A
Freeport is for industrial products, which need to be processed with raw
material inputs. But culture isn't like this."